The father of a nine-year-old 'pirate' has settled the case for 300 euros after becoming embroiled in a copyright infringement case and police raid which resulted in his daughter's laptop being confiscated.

TorrentFreak reports that Aki Nylund, the father of the nine-year-old downloader, has agreed to pay half of the original demand -- 300 euros -- to make looming legal action go away.

The Copyright Information And Anti-Piracy Centre (CIAPC), Finland, is "happy" with the settlement, and said that "In a way, we just continued the original negotiations from where we left off.”

In return, CIAPC has withdrawn its request for a pre-trial investigation, the police have closed the file, and the now ten-year-old girl's laptop will eventually be returned.

After receiving a letter stating that his ISP account had been traced back to illegal activities concerning the torrent search website The Pirate Bay, Nylund was issued a demand from the CIAPC for 600 euros, in addition to a non-disclosure agreement, of which he refused, taking the story to the press.

Public outcry ensued, not necessarily because of the nature of the claim, but because it was deemed by some as heavy-handed -- especially once it was revealed the nine-year-olds' laptop was confiscated as evidence, and she had bought the album legally afterwards.

Apart from the CIAPC's pleasure at reaching a settlement, perhaps this case marks a point where a new system should be put in place, rather than wasting police time and taxpayer funds. When you consider the age of the 'pirate', education and a strike-rule might be a more reasonable attitude to take. It's difficult for parents to keep an eye on all of their child's online activity, but in order to avoid lawsuits that apply to everyone no matter what their age is, another option is placing controls on a child's laptop to prevent the use of torrent and pirate software.